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who insisted that the only definition that is exactly right is "truth, godliness, beauty." If something has to be dropped from the definition, you can drop truth, you can drop godliness, but beauty you cannot drop.
Beauty is the sky for the poet, for the painter, for the musician -- and how is it possible that the ultimate truth should be ugly? It has to be the most beautiful experience. But the definition will be applicable to only a very few people. The second definition will be applicable to a vast majority of people.
There is one difference more that has to be remembered. The first definition is outgoing -- truth is at the center of being, then godliness surrounds it, and then another circle of beauty. But that beauty is not beyond the beauty of the trees and the flowers and human faces. Everything that is beautiful in the world is a joining link with the ultimate.
Rabindranath was the first man in history who said beauty is truth. Nobody has ever said that. There have been people who have said truth is beauty, but nobody who dared to say that beauty is truth, putting beauty on the highest peak. That will be possible only to those who can feel the sensitivity of the beautiful. It is not for all.
But the second definition is not so outgoing. It does not go out at all. Truth, consciousness, bliss -- all are inside you. None of these three experiences takes you out.
In psychological terminology, the first definition can be said to be of the outgoing consciousness, expanding consciousness -- just as when you throw a pebble into a silent lake, and waves start moving towards the farther shores. The first definition is expanding, outgoing. Psychologists have a special word for it; they call it 'extrovert'. And certainly the poet is an extrovert, because he sees the beauty of the trees and the beauty of the stars and the beauty of the birds singing. He is an extrovert.
The second definition is 'introvert'. It concentrates on your very being -- because it is enough, there is no need to go out.
Truth, consciousness, blissfulness.
In still other words, it can be said that the first definition is that of the bodhisattvas
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